A perfect holiday menu

Friday

Dec 8, 2017 at 6:10 AM

By R. Scott Reedy, Correspondent

The Renaissance Men vocal music ensemble may have been around only since 2014, but its once-a-year, one-night-only holiday gala – featuring classical musical as well as carols and a not-to-be-missed menu – has already become an annual tradition.

This year’s “A Very RenMen Holiday” concert and gala will take place at Boston’s Old South Church on Dec. 11. It will feature appetizers by Daniel Pontes-Macedo, a Season 8 contestant on Fox-TV’s “MasterChef” and one-time resident of both Medford and Somerville.

“Our holiday concert will be a record breaker for us,” explained Eric Christopher Perry, Renaissance Men’s artistic director and conductor, by telephone from his West Roxbury home recently. “We will have 12 singers performing, our largest number ever, which is very exciting.”

Inspired by Boston’s rich tradition of male vocal music – including the Apollo Club of Boston, founded in 1871, and the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, now in its 35th year – Renaissance Men was founded by Perry, Anthony Burkes Garza, Will Prapestis, Peter Schilling and Alexander Nishibun.

“The five of us were together in a New England Conservatory practice room singing various bass and tenor parts to prepare for work we were doing with other ensembles when the idea came to us to form our own. Renaissance Men is a little different from the other male vocal groups, which are much larger.

“We’re a professional male vocal chamber ensemble. We do a little bit of everything from early renaissance and baroque to pop, traditional choral music, and roots,” said Perry, a tenor who also sings with the Cantata Singers, Emmanuel Music, and the Handel and Haydn Society.

“From the painfully beautiful to the fun and ridiculous, the music will be an eclectic mix, from “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Silent Night” to “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,” he says.

Two new compositions will also be highlighted.

“Our composer-in-residence, Daniel E. Gawthrop, has written a piece specifically for this event. It’s called ‘The Longest Night’ and it is austere, ethereal, and quite beautiful. We’ll also be doing the American premiere of ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ by Jan Wilke, a contemporary German composer.”

And because music and food make ideal holiday companions, Pontes-Macedo will be preparing a menu that will include meatballs in a winter spiced cream sauce with port wine-poached figs, seasonal whitefish ceviche in tortilla cups, caramelized onion and brandied mushroom crostini, and baked phyllo wrapped brie and fruit preserves, with a surprise for dessert.

Perry, director of choirs and applied music associate in voice at Colby College, says the Renaissance Men, who perform three to four main stage concerts each year, are very much looking forward to this year’s holiday show.

“With everything from ‘Frosty the Snowman’ to traditional classical music, and new favorites by some of today’s hottest composers, including Saunder Choi and Paul John Rudoi, and amazing food by the Lion Chef himself, we think we have just what we need for another memorable evening.”

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